Heroes for a Day
by ArtisticOddity
Summary: Each year children of all ages dress in costume, and engage in the tradition of Trick-or-Treating. This year was no different in that respect. The difference for a select group of young friends was the adventure, when they make their way to Trick-or-Treat at the Avengers' front door, and instead find themselves battling a bully to help a friend, and meet the Heroes they so admire.


Once a year each child lives out their fantasy of becoming something they've always wanted to be. For some, it's a realistic guise that is chosen; a doctor, an astronaut, a fireman or police officer. Others it is a fantasy; princesses, dragons, witches and zombies, and even super heroes.

In New York City, small super heroes are a common sight this day. Little boys and girls dressed as little Avengers darting door to door shouting "Trick or Treat!" with gleeful voices, and cheering when the small sweets are dropped into their bags and buckets. This year is no different, for most children that is. For one group of little trick-or-treaters, this year will be unlike any other.

"I want to be Hulk; you always get to be the big strong ones every other time." A little boy named Jamie complained. He stood about three feet tall, with a mob of curly dark hair atop his head that often fell into his eyes. He was a small boy, perhaps the smallest of the group; his body held nearly no fat, and next to no muscle.

Beside him his older brother of just fifteen minutes stood. Jamie was a small and stood at the sidelines of recess, his brother Devin was a bold and quite muscular for his age and the prince of dodge ball for their class.

"Jamie you're way too small to be the Hulk." Devin retorted, scrunching his nose and picking up his costume; "Pick someone else!"

"Bruce Banner isn't big. He turns big! Please Devin? You can be any of the Avengers! I wanna be Bruce!"

As the six year olds argued their mother came to an idea and picked up a scientist costume for Jamie. "Boys, why don't one of you go as the Hulk, and the other as Bruce?" She questioned, "You're practically the same person anyway. Devin's always been the Hulk to your Bruce Banner." She smiled, handing her younger son the scientist costume. After a few more minutes of convincing the twins were finally in agreement that Jamie would be Bruce Banner, and Devin would be the Hulk.

That evening as the boys excitedly dressed in costume for the annual tradition of Trick-or-Treating both six-year-olds were impatiently awaiting the arrival of their friends. They had all agreed to go together as the Avengers, and couldn't wait to see each other's costumes.

The first to be dropped off was a little seven-year-old girl named Leah, but was better known as Lee-Lee. She came in wearing a baseball cap, letting her long blonde hair hang down her back, barely touching the waistband of her cargo pants that matched perfectly with her oversized "Vote for Pedro" shirt, which she stole from her older brother.

"HappyHalloweenLee-Lee!" Jamie shouted, his excitement leaving the entire greeting as one word. He was dressed proudly in his Hulk costume, since Devin had given in traded with his brother. "Happy Halloween!" She beamed, hugging their mother before handing her the paper grocery bag that contained her costume, "Will you help me?" She pleaded hopefully, happily following her into the bathroom to get dressed while the boys waited for the rest of their friends.

Emerging from the bathroom where Lee-Lee once was came a very confident looking little Hawkeye. "Lee-Lee! That's a boy's costume!" Devin scolded, earning a scowl from the little girl. "The girl Avengers costumes are all stupid!" She argued, "Besides Hawkeye is the coolest and you're dumb!" she added and waited for the others to join them.

By the time Trick-or-Treating began their Avengers were completed with an eight-year-old Thor played by a proud young man named Fred, another six-year-old boy named Rick proudly dressed as Captain America, and a very small five year old dressed as a miniature Ironman, named Aaron. Leading their parade was Aaron's sixteen year old big brother, who went dressed as a punk rockstar and made it very clear that he wanted nothing to do with his brother's "stupid little friends" on Halloween.

Door to door their group went, laughing and pretending to be the real Avengers as they gleefully shouted "Trick or Treat!" at each doorway. It didn't take long for Aaron's brother to find his friends, and girlfriend, and abandon the little Avengers to fend for themselves.

"Look!" Fred gasped after hours of wandering alone, pointing with his small foam _Mjölnir to the well known Stark Tower. Rumors had gone around that the Avengers themselves were handing candies out for trick-or-treating. "We should go." Rick announced, adjusting his plastic shield and leading the way to the doors._

_The Avengers sat inside the tower taking turns answering the door fully suited up and handing autographs out with candy while watching the children on the monitors from a lounge area just out of sight from the door. "Hey look at this!" Steve smiled, pointing at the tiny Avengers nervously standing at the curb, staring up at the tower. "That has to be the most adorable thing I've seen all night." Natasha smirked, nudging Bruce and pointing to the two boys who were dressed as both sides of him._

_"JARVIS, put some sound on this one; I want to hear this." Tony demanded, smiling as the voices of the young heroes could suddenly be heard, as well as the sound of unmistakable bullying from a boy just out of sight of the camera. _

_Turning the camera's view a bit they saw a little girl dressed as Princess Peach arguing with a teenage boy over her bag of candy. "Tommy that's MY candy though!" she whined trying to tug the bag away from her older brother. _

_"Shut up, you're not going to eat it anyway." He argued and pulled the candy bag away from her, "Now stop crying!"_

_"Hey look, it's Tiffany!" Lee-Lee announced teasingly, knowing that Aaron had a crush on her. He looked up and saw that she was being bullied by her brother again, and started walking up to them, feeling stronger while dressed as Ironman. _

_"Hey! Leave her alone!" he shouted, the childish pitch of his five-year-old voice echoing through the speakers of the lounge inside the tower. He had no idea that Tony Stark himself was watching him play the hero. _

_"Oh yeah? What're YOU gonna do about it?" the teenager sneered, smirking when the tiny "Ironman" backed up a little bit, stuttering nervously before taking a breath as a surge of courage filled his heart. "A-Avengers, Assemble!" he shouted, calling his friends up to help him._

_The first one to his side was Fred, who threw his little foam hammer at the bully, hitting him in the leg. Seconds later Rick threw his shield at him, hitting him in the head. Lee-Lee tried to shoot him with her toy bow but couldn't quite get the arrow to sit right in time before the teenager's anger was turned onto her and her friends; instead she chose to throw the arrows at him so that she could help. _

_"Leave them alone!" Tiffany squeaked when her brother stormed over and took the little Ironman's candy bag from him while ordering her to shut up._

_"You're not the Avengers." He smirked, knowing that it would get to the little ones in front of him; "You're just a bunch of stupid kids playing dress-up. Grow up!" he barked, and was about to throw the bag of candy over a fence when someone cleared their throat a short ways away._

_"Uhm, I really don't think you want to do that." The unmistakable, slightly mechanic voice of the real Ironman announced. _

_Turning to the sound of the hero's voice the small Avengers impersonators stared with jaws dropped in awe as Ironman's mask opened and Tony walked over to Tiffany's brother, taking both bags of candy from him and returning them to their proper owners. "Now, what do we say?" he questioned, speaking to the teenager as if he were a toddler._

_"Sorry." He muttered, obviously afraid of the Man of Iron. _

_"Very good; now, I'm gonna keep an eye on you, so I hope I won't be seeing any more bullying from you. There's nothing that I hate more than a bully." he threatened and watched as Tiffany smiled her thanks to both Ironmen shyly, and followed her brother away._

_"I believe that this belongs to you, tiny Asgardian." Thor's booming voice announced as he knelt down to return the small foam hammer to Fred. Though he was kneeling his body still dwarfed the nervous eight-year-old. _

_"Well I'm guessing you all came here for some candy," Tony smiled as each of the kids collected their "weapons" and followed him to the door._

_Once both teams were gathered in the light of the doorway the Avengers were finally able to properly see and appreciate the miniatures of themselves before them. "Thor" was attempting to hide his nerves while anxiously adjusting the blonde wig that sat loosely on his head while feeling completely tiny beside the real God of Thunder, while beside him the small female Hawkeye was eyeing the archer with a smirk as if challenging him to comment on her costume. Aaron stood self-consciously with his head down, half hiding from Tony behind Rick, slightly embarrassed by his home made Ironman costume, and Rick confidently shook hands with Steve while comparing their shields and asking rapid fire questions about life in the Avengers, and what World War II was really like._

_Hidden in the back of the miniature Avengers were the last two members of their team. A small and shy Hulk, and in front of him a shaggy haired scientist who was quite obviously protecting him._

_"So, we have Thor, Hawkeye, Captain America, and me," Tony announced, making Aaron giggle slightly, "I see the Hulk… but whose your friend?" _

_"That's Bruce!" Lee-Lee answered as if Tony had been born without a brain._

_"He's my other side." Devin announced bravely; "Like the Hulk and Bruce." _

_"Twins." Steve nodded with a wide grin, "That's… really smart, actually." _

_"So since trick-or-treat is over, you're our last group of kids for the night; I guess that means you split the rest of the candy!" Bruce announced, dividing the remainder of the candy tank that Tony had spent far too much money filling into their bags as Clint and Tony walked away for a minute before returning with replica communicator cards for each child._

_"All right, these aren't real Avengers cards. However, they are real passes into this tower for one day. We feel that you've shown what it takes to be honorary Avengers and would like to invite each of you to come be Avengers with us for a day." Tony announced, smiling at the excited gasps of the children as they carefully took the cards in hand and cherished them._

_"Thanks so much Mr. Ironman!" Aaron gasped, bouncing with excitement before throwing his arms around the hero's knees for a hug. "You're welcome, kiddo." He chuckled, patting the kid's shoulder as he rejoined his friends._

_"Uhm, do you know how to get to the train station from here?" Lee-Lee asked suddenly, anxiously messing with the fletching on her toy arrows._

_"Train station? How far do you live from here?" _

_"A long way. My brother was supposed to be driving us but he left with his friends; I think he forgot us." Aaron answered, "But Jamie and Devin live right by a train station! So we could walk home, maybe."_

_"No, you're not walking all that way by yourselves; it isn't safe. Avengers or not, this city is a dangerous place." Steve announced firmly; "We have to look out for each other."_

_"Why did your brother leave you?" Natasha demanded._

_"Because his friend got a new car and they went driving. And trick-or-treating isn't cool." Aaron answered sadly._

_"Well, he doesn't know what 'cool' is. I do. Now let's get you kids home in style, and show this brother of yours what a real cool car looks like." Tony announced and ushered the children to the nearby garage._

_Two hours, and half way across the city later Aaron's brother was frantically making phone calls to find his brother after realizing that he was now missing somewhere in New York City. Behind him the mothers of each miniature Avenger were panicking, from raging at the irresponsible teenager for losing their children, to sitting in the corner in tears over their missing baby. Until the loud muffler of a vintage muscle car revved outside Devin and Jamie's house caught their attention._

_Looking out the window to investigate the mothers and teenage boy were met with a parade of Tony Stark's best cars, each with a different Avenger climbing out. Beside the drivers the missing trick-or-treaters, laughing and bonding with their heroes. _

_"Is this your brother?" Natasha questioned, walking up to the flustered teen. "Yep! That's him!" Lee-Lee shouted, leaning with Clint against a shiny silver smart car designed by Tony himself. _

_"I hope you learned your lesson. Anything could have happened to these kids, I hope you realize that. You could have lost them forever." She explained coldly before turning her attention to the mothers who were now coddling their children._

_"We made sure to get them home safe and sound and in perfect condition, Ma'am." The Captain nodded as Jamie and Devin's mother fell to her knees, suffocating them both in hugs before standing and suffocating him as well. _

_"All right, looks like a happy ending. Let's get going." Clint announced after another ten minutes when things finally had calmed down. The others nodded in agreement and began to climb into their cars when Bruce nudged Tony to get his attention. "Say it. You know they're dying to hear us say it." He pushed with a grin, earning grin of equal magnitude from his fellow scientist who poked his head out the window and signaled to the other cars. _

_"AVENGERS, ASSEMBLE!" he shouted with more enthusiasm than ever before, laughing when the miniature Avengers echoed the call as he led the team home, taking pride in knowing that he and his fellow Avengers had given those children a night that would live on in their memories for the rest of their lives. Each hero in their caravan knew that until the dreadful day that those children died they would tell of the Halloween when they were young, when they were abandoned by their guide and left to live out their fantasies and become Heroes for a Day. _


End file.
